NPS and Wildlife Refuge land is treated differently with regard to gun
rights than other federally controlled land. For instance, the Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) allows state and local laws to govern firearms
possession. However, carrying firearms on NPS land and Wildlife Refuges
is prohibited, even if the state in which the land is located allows
carrying firearms.

The only way to legally possess a firearm anywhere on National Park land
is by having it unloaded and inaccessible, such as locked up in your
trunk.

This has created a patchwork of conflicting regulations. For instance, a
Virginia resident who is licensed to carry a concealed firearm can
legally carry on the Commonwealth’s roadways, but it is illegal to carry
on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a major thoroughfare in
Virginia under the jurisdiction of the NPS.

In the waning days of his administration, President Bush partially
reversed the ban, but even that half-way measure has been
single-handedly negated by an activist judge in Washington, D.C. The
Department of Interior has decided not to appeal that ruling, thus
leaving the gun ban in place.

The Coburn amendment will treat NPS land and Wildlife Refuges in the
same manner as BLM land. The amendment will in no way change or override
state, local or federal law, but will simply allow those laws — enacted
by legislation, not bureaucrats or judges — to govern firearms
possession.

The amendment was attached to a bill, H.R. 627, regulating the credit
card industry. The House passed its own version of the bill on April 30
by a vote of 357-70, and the Senate is expected to follow suit this
week.

The House bill does not contain the Coburn language, and is
substantially different in other respects. Therefore, a House and Senate
conference committee will have to iron out the differences between the
two bills. President Obama said he wants to sign a bill before Memorial
Day.

GOA will alert you once the conferees are appointed, as we need to put
the heat on the conference committee to keep the Coburn amendment in the
final bill.

Please stay tuned for further updates.

States Beginning to Resist Federal Intrusion

The epicenter of the earthquake you may have felt last month originated
in Helena, Montana.

That’s where Governor Brian Schweitzer signed the Montana Firearms
Freedom Act into law. This act basically states that if you build a gun
in Montana — and the firearm stays in the state — it is exempt from
federal gun control laws.

Several states have passed so-called Tenth Amendment resolutions in
recent years to protest the usurpation of power that the federal
government has engaged in. However, most of these resolutions have no
teeth.

What Montana has done is to actually interpose itself so as to protect
its citizens from the unconstitutional mandates that have been passed at
the federal level.

Gary Marbut, a former GOA Board Member and the current head of the
Montana Shooting Sports Association, is the intellectual author of this
legislation. He says that almost a dozen states are considering — or
have already introduced — similar bills. Marbut is expected to talk
about the new law on Fox’s Glenn Beck show this Friday (5 pm EST).

This effort is not the first act of interposition on Montana’s part.
This is the state that has effectively, by law, decreed that every
law-abiding citizen within the state is authorized to carry a firearm
within a school zone; the state that nullified the federal requirements
of REAL-ID (read: National ID card); and which had even threatened to
leave the union if the Supreme Court ruled against Second Amendment
rights in the Heller case.

Thank God for the state of Montana.

****************************

What’s Your Current GOA Status?

Obviously, we now face years of invigorated attacks on our gun rights.
Shutting down gun shows, prohibitions on specific calibers, another
semi-auto ban, and the anti-gun extremists’ Holy Grail of mandatory
federal licensing and registration of all gun owners — these are just
some of the horrors that we already know we’ll have to defeat head-on.
Meanwhile, we’ll take every opportunity to go on offense and advance the
Second Amendment.

It can’t be done without every single voice being counted. That’s why we
are asking you to consider making the commitment of becoming a Gun
Owners of America Life Member. By doing so, you put the politicians on
notice that neither you nor GOA is going away — that no matter who’s in
the White House, there is always going to be a solid wall of resistance.